What does that mean for wild salmon conservation? As with all climate change tales, it’s complicated. Adding to climate effects from warming ocean water and extreme temperatures, disappearing glaciers will leave some North Pacific salmon systems more vulnerable to heat and drought.

But, retreating ice will also likely create thousands of miles of potential new salmon habitat

Map showing the percent glacier cover for watersheds or regions between California and Alaska. The numbers in parentheses following the watershed or region names refer to percent cover of glaciers in the watershed or region. See more graphics from the study.
Map highlighting the mediating factors such as watershed size, presence of lakes, river valley form, and regional climate influencing the effects of glacier retreat on salmon and their habitat. Watershed boundaries (various colors), and rivers and lakes (blue) data were obtained from the National Hydro Database for Alaska and the Freshwater Atlas for British Columbia. Glacier outlines (white), were obtained from the Randolph Glacier Inventory v6.0 (Pfeffer et al. 2014). See more graphics from the study.Featured Image: Spawning Salmon in Becharof Stream within the Becharof Wilderness in southern Alaska [1991] – U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.